


because nobody warned you

by sith_shenanigans



Category: Kidd Commander (Webcomic)
Genre: Poor Life Choices, Rated M for Tain Shenanigans, hey look it's the bad stars
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 15:14:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16043051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sith_shenanigans/pseuds/sith_shenanigans
Summary: There's a persistent rumor that commanders sell their souls.They don't. But there's things out there that are happy to accept a bargain like that, no matter what misconceptions you might be working on at the time.The tain don't make contracts, and they certainly don't abide by them.





	because nobody warned you

There are things out there that’ll eat your soul, if you poke around in the wrong places. Every kid knows that by the time they’re old enough to toddle around. Even worse, there are people out there that’ll let it happen. And some people—some people are even crazy enough to _ask_.

Around Crooked Port, those last ones get called commanders. Nobody really knows what they command, but it’s got too many eyes and too many mouths and a real nasty attitude. 

Crooked Port doesn’t exist anymore, and the last survivor’s as tragically misinformed as the rest. 

***

The caves are a few miles out of town—well, out of where town used to be—and they’re easy to find. Just follow the warning signs telling you to under no circumstances keep going, and you’re well on your way to putting your horrifyingly bad idea into action. 

Emma is out of good ideas, and she figures whatever’s in there can’t be that much worse than sitting around in the crashlands and waiting to die. She’s heard dehydration is an awful way to go. So, hey, with an alternative like that, most things look like an okay plan in comparison. Even walking into a cave mouth that juts out of the ground like a lost stalagmite—or possibly stalactite, she can never keep them straight—and only slants down.

Setting her jaw, Emma carefully ducks the rusty chain slung across the mouth and starts picking her way down the slope. It’s a deep slant, the kind where if you went too fast you could easily trip and break something. 

She goes down slow and careful on her hands and knees, feet first into the darkness—and she doesn’t know that there’s a metaphor in that, but it probably wouldn’t matter if she did. She’s never been the type to turn around and go home.

It’s a little over ten minutes before things level out, but it feels like longer—maybe a half hour. Emma straightens up again and keeps walking, though the air is stale and dusty and the cave quickly goes from wider than at the mouth to much narrower, until she’s having to creep through it sideways. _That_ part lasts nearly an hour, her stomach pressing against the wall with every shallow breath she takes, and she’s starting to wonder if there’s another tunnel she missed somewhere when she half-trips into a large cavern. 

The first thing she notices is that it isn’t pitch-black. There’s a lake taking up most of the cavern, throwing out a sickly blue light. The shadows on the walls shift and wriggle in a way that makes Emma’s head pound, and she can’t tell if it’s really happening or if the air down here has gone bad. It _smells_ like it might have gone bad, at least if bad air smells like oil slicks and rotten candyfloss. She glances at the opening she came in from, and shudders at the thought of trying to get back to the surface before she suffocates. 

_If it’s just bad air_ , she decides, _then I guess I’m dead._

But she doesn’t think it’s just bad air. If it were just bad air, then they’d have closed this place off and had done long ago. Nobody was afraid of who might stumble in, not really—not more afraid than they were of what might come out. And if they’d tried to brick the cave up, then it might have come out angry.

Emma sits down and just breathes for a little bit, trying to figure out if it’s real air she’s taking in. Another few minutes pass, and she doesn’t pass out, so she figures she’s alright. She pushes herself up again and starts walking towards the lake.

The lake opens its eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Have a tiny prologue I finished up and posted because I'm procrastinating on a fight scene in my Star Wars fic.


End file.
